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Pittsfield woman raises funds to put AEDs in on-duty police cars

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Courtney Reid Alexander smiles with her family - husband Nick and children Alexis, 3, Brooke, 7, and Chase, 5 - at home April 22. Reid has set up a fundraiser in Pittsfield Township to put an AED in every on-duty police car after she experienced a sudden cardiac arrest.
(Brianne Bowen | The Ann Arbor News)

On Feb. 3, 2013, however, Alexander went into sudden cardiac arrest in a driveway in her former town of residence, Hamburg, Mich.

“I'm a former collegiate athlete,” she said. “I found out that it can happen to anyone.”

A police car arrived on the scene first, and had an automated external defibrillator (AED) in the car. Alexander said that because they arrived within five minutes, they saved her life.

“They were able to put the AED on me and start my heart again,” she said. “The EMS didn’t come for another maybe five minutes, and every second counts.”

An AED is a portable electronic device that check a heart's rhythm. If needed, the device can send an electrical shock through the body to reestablish the heart's regular rhythm. AEDs are used to treat sudden cardiac arrest.

She found out after the event that the reason the Hamburg police had an AED in their car was because of a community fundraiser that raised funds to put AEDs in each police car on duty.

The idea came about after singer Michael Harding went into cardiac arrest eight years ago at Hamburg’s annual Fun Fest after performing one song and was saved by an on-scene AED.

The Hamburg Enhanced Recreation Organization then raised more than $20,000 to buy AEDs for Hamburg.

Alexander recently moved to Pittsfield Township, and at the top of her to-do list in the new community was to see if police cars in Washtenaw County carried AEDs.

“I called all of the police departments to see about fundraising, and all of them had them except Pittsfield, which is where I moved to,” she said.

She added that Pittsfield Township was more than willing to put AEDs in its police cars, so she began a fundraiser in order to generate the money needed to put an AED in each of the six on-duty police cars, as well as a practice AED for the station.

Matthew Harshberger, Pittsfield Township’s director of public safety and chief of police, wrote in an email that Alexander’s initiative will be helpful to the community.

“I think this is a great initiative by Courtney Alexander, a township resident, to ensure that our police officers have the ability to provide quick medical aid in situations when an AED can be used to save a life. Although all of our fire response apparatus have AEDs, the addition of AEDs to our police vehicles will add an additional level of service that our police officers can provide to the public when they are the closest emergency response unit,” Harshberger wrote.

He also thanked Alexander and the contributing community.

“I want to thank Courtney Alexander for her personal attention and leadership on this important project, and I also wish to thank everyone who contributed to what turned out to be a very quick and successful fundraising effort!” he wrote.

Alexander’s goal for the fundraiser is $8,000. The cost of each AED is approximately $1,000, and the remaining money raised will go toward maintenance of the AEDs, including changing batteries and replacing pads on the device.

She began her fundraiser on April 2, and according to her GoFundMe page, she’s already collected more than $7,800 toward her project. Alexander said she sent the link to her fundraising page to family, friends and people around Pittsfield she thought would donate to the cause.

She added that social media played a big role in fundraising because some donators posted the fundraising page on their Facebook to share it with all of their friends.

“It spiraled into the big thing where it went from 50 people seeing it to all the people who shared it around the area,” Alexander said. “The community and people who don’t live in Pittsfield or don’t know me but heard my story are donating.”

She added that the majority of the donations came in the first 48 hours of the fundraiser.
Alexander concluded with saying that it’s as important for police officers to have AEDs as it is for EMS trucks.

“Part of the reason I did [the fundraiser] was because police officers are first on the scene a lot of the time, but they can just do CPR until the EMS gets there,” she said.

She added that her goal is not only to fill Pittsfield’s police cars with AEDs, but also to raise awareness of cardiac arrest.

“I wanted to not only help Pittsfield out, but also raise awareness that it happens a lot and it can happen to anyone,” Alexander said.